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Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

texasmonthly.com

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Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#61

Post by sh-run »

cthalupa wrote: post #6

I've lived my whole life in Texas and never assigned cardinal directions to out or over. Up and down, sure, but that seems fairly universal. No one in checking with, regardless of Texas hometown or age had any idea this was a thing, either, and that's hitting people up to 60 years old and from Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Maybe it's a rural Texas thing?

Another data point, I grew up in a small town outside of Amarillo and now live in Fort Worth.

I went down (south) to Lubbock for College and over to Fort Worth (east) when I graduated. I still head over (west) to Lubbock occasionally because I have a sister going to Texas Tech. I go up (north) to Amarillo to visit my parents.

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't really noticed anyone using "out" to describe a direction. People do head "out" and go "out" all the time though.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#62

Post by technofiend »

I guess y'all are fixin to use our directional words.

Honestly Houston (and I'm sure the other major cities too) has a bunch of weird pronunciation that marks natives versus folks just lucky enough to move here and I assumed the article was going to go into things like "fixing" or our weird town names.

Here in Houston for example "Kuykendall" Street is pronounced with an R like the Dutch name from which it derives "Kerkendal". I'm not sure how the Dutch emphasize the syllables but it's "KIRK-en-dahl" here.

Our street "Elgin" is pronounced with a soft g instead of the hard one found at the front of the drink and there's no y sound marrying the consonant.

Fuqua is properly pronounced "FYU-qway" at least according to the Fuqua I met working at a local energy company. And "San Jacinto" doesn't follow Spanish pronunciation rules and is pronounced "San Jyacinto" not "San Yacinto or San Hacinto." Same with "San Felipe" which is "San fillipee" not "San Fuh-lee-pay."

Here's an article with more examples.

https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2013/6/1/whats-in-a-st...

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#63

Post by khedoros1 »

markcerqueira wrote: post #42
__david__ wrote: post #26

As a native Californian I definitely use "up" and "down". Up to L.A., down to San Diego. I might make a trip up the coast to Oregon or Washington. I also might go back east (meaning the east coast). Never used "out" though, probably because I'm already about as west as you can go on this continent! "Over", however is just used without regard to direction, though it generally signifies a close distance. I'd head over…

I'm surprised to hear a native Californian would say "back east." I thought only people from the East Coast (or I guessed who lived there at one point) would go "back."

I'm in California now (and have been for over half my life, at this point), but I suspect I'd say "back east" when talking about my past, at the very least. For me, there's a sense of time involved, as well as direction.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#64

Post by craftyguy »

cthalupa wrote: post #6

I've lived my whole life in Texas and never assigned cardinal directions to out or over. Up and down, sure, but that seems fairly universal. No one in checking with, regardless of Texas hometown or age had any idea this was a thing, either, and that's hitting people up to 60 years old and from Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Maybe it's a rural Texas thing?

I grew up in Texas in the 90s, in both urban and rural locations (Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and some small towns in the hill country), and it does seem to be a mainly rural thing.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#65

Post by zeveb »

username223 wrote: post #37
__david__ wrote: post #26

As a native Californian I definitely use "up" and "down". Up to L.A., down to San Diego. I might make a trip up the coast to Oregon or Washington. I also might go back east (meaning the east coast). Never used "out" though, probably because I'm already about as west as you can go on this continent! "Over", however is just used without regard to direction, though it generally signifies a close distance. I'd head over…

As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south." I wouldn't be surprised if they're near-universal to inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, since that's the way maps are drawn. A possible exception would be inhabitants of mountainous regions saying e.g. "up to Leadville" or "down to Denver." Having lived in Houston, I didn't notice "over"…

> As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south."

You're probably right, but I think it's relatively new; IIRC traditionally 'up' & 'down' refer to elevation. And of course maps used to be drawn with east, rather than north, at the top (hence the phrase 'orient a map' — 'orient' just means 'east').

I always use 'up' & 'down' for elevation, but I'm weird:-)

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#66

Post by joveian »

I don't think I use any of those words directionally. I guess it is more of a general directional awareness thing than really useful information to convey in most cases. Similar to how some people might describe even the front and back of a building with compass directions. Although I guess in cases of lesser known destinations the general direction might be enough to prompt you to ask if someone could run a quick errand for you or drop you off/pick you up somewhere.

I use "over" to imply "right now unless otherwise specified" but it could be anywhere. Although usually that would be implied by context so it is mostly just an extra word. I ignore the other words when others use them (I would not notice any particular usage) and might say some of them on occasion if I hear enough people using one particular word with a particular place.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#67

Post by davidw »

Fun fact about cardinal directions in Italy: they don't really exist and people will give you confused looks. They talk about going in the direction of whatever city or landmark lies that way - "towards Milano, towards Bassano, follow the canal" and so on.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#69

Post by fian »

pwagland wrote: post #41
username223 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south." I wouldn't be surprised if they're near-universal to inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, since that's the way maps are drawn. A possible exception would be inhabitants of mountainous regions saying e.g. "up to Leadville" or "down to Denver." Having lived in Houston, I didn't notice "over"…

Even in Australia which, last I checked, is not in the US, uses up and down to refer to north and south. That seems fairly independent or state as well. For example ins Perth you go "up to Geraldton" and in Sydney you go "up to Brisbane", and "down to Melbourne". The whole out and over thing seems more regional to me. In Australia "out" is generally just "far from here" and "over"... well that isn't a thing, at least…

It is not uncommon in Australia to say you are going over to a friend's house.

In Perth people often would say they are "going over" to Melbourne or Sydney. There is also the reverse "coming over"

"Out" is used generally such as in "heading out" where often no destination is specified. Also we sometimes use "outback" meaning anywhere not in a city or suburban area.

Re: Talk Like a Texan: How Texans Use “Down,” “Out,” “Over,” and “Up”

#70

Post by acheron »

zeveb wrote: post #65
username223 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south." I wouldn't be surprised if they're near-universal to inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, since that's the way maps are drawn. A possible exception would be inhabitants of mountainous regions saying e.g. "up to Leadville" or "down to Denver." Having lived in Houston, I didn't notice "over"…

> As a native of... nowhere in particular, I think "up" and "down" are pretty universal among Americans for "north" and "south." You're probably right, but I think it's relatively new; IIRC traditionally 'up' & 'down' refer to elevation. And of course maps used to be drawn with east , rather than north, at the top (hence the phrase 'orient a map' — 'orient' just means 'east'). I always use 'up' & 'down' for elevation…

(hence the phrase 'orient a map' — 'orient' just means 'east').

I used to think this too, but I did some research once and it appears the origin of "orient" the verb is unrelated to east-printed maps, and has more to do with building your church so that the altar faces east.

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